"If the current levy were to disappear STARS service would almost come to a halt," -Sylvester Payne

Saginaw resident and Transit Advisory Committee member Bill Schaiberger speaks at the Saginaw Transit Authority Regional Services Board of Director's Monday, July 28, 2014 meeting. Schaiberger urged STARS to consider placing a millage renewal on the November 2014 ballot, though the board had previously decided to wait until 2015, which will result in a $30-40 thousand additional expense.Mark Tower | MLive.com

SAGINAW, MI — Saginaw's regional transit system, funded partially through a local property tax levy, has decided to wait until 2015 to ask city voters to renew that millage, a decision that will cost it up to $40,000.

The Saginaw Transit Authority Regional Services Board of Directors decided, without any votes in opposition at its May 27 meeting, to wait for 2015 to place the issue on city ballots.

STARS General Manager Sylvester Payne explained during the board's Monday, July 28, meeting that he had recommended waiting in May, and that his recommendation has not changed.

"I still believe that it probably should be done in next year," Payne said. "I'm just very concerned that a campaign or no campaign — because that is pretty much what it would be between now and November — would mislead the public into what's going on. That they may not feel comfortable because we have not said enough about what the millage would do."

The current 3-mill levy for STARS expires at the end of 2015. The levy applies to the city of Saginaw.

Bill Schaiberger spoke at the board's meeting Monday, urging members to reconsider and place the proposal onto the November ballot.

Schaiberger, a STARS rider and member of the board's Transit Advisory Committee, said the money shouldn't be spent on an election unnecessarily.

"I think that $40,000 could be used for other things here at STARS besides the special election," he said. "I'm not in favor of the added expense."

Payne pointed out that inadequate time to run the campaign, combined with a bevy of millage issues coming to voters in August and a 7.5-mill public safety levy question coming in November, all made for a strong argument to wait.

"I'm just afraid that it would look very, very weak," he said.

Board Member Dennis Morrison said he agreed with Payne's recommendation.

Saginaw City Clerk Janet Santos estimates that STARS will need to pay somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 to hold the special city election in 2015.

"That's what it costs to run a city election," Santos said.

The city clerk said there would have been a significantly less had STARS placed renewal on the November 2014 ballot. Santos explained that the authority would then have only had to pay for "any additional costs," such as the costs of any necessary public notices associated with the proposal, instead of the entire cost of the election.

She added that the cost to STARS for placing the renewal on a 2015 ballot could be reduced if another taxing entity decides to place another proposal on the same ballot.

Payne acknowledged there is an added cost associated with waiting until 2015, but said it will be worth it in the time it will give STARS to prepare for the campaign.

"You don't want to fail," he said. "That just makes the next one tougher to go after."

"There are still a number of people who have not forgotten that we do not provide Saturday service," he said.

Daniel LePan, chairman of the STARS board of directors, said the need for more time was the major reason the board decided to wait. LePan also acknowledged that the general manager's recent health concerns also factored into the decision.

Any effort to renew the millage could suffer without Payne's full attention, he explained.

"We would have been running blind," LePan said.

Payne said recent upper-management personnel changes over the past year has also hurt the administration's ability to put together a successful millage campaign on such short notice.

LePan explained that, in the wake of City Council's decision to eliminate odd-year elections, a proposal to place the levy on the November ballot came to the STARS government affairs committee at its May meeting.

Though that committee voted down the proposal, it was brought to the full board directly by the chairman on May 27.

"I brought it to the full board because I thought the full board should be fully aware of it," LePan said. "And the full board voted it down."

Payne said the funds necessary to pay for a special election in 2015 will come directly out of the STARS general fund, "over and above" the dollars received through the millage and from state and federal funding sources. STARS reserve funds would be drained to pay for the election, he said.

The current 3-mill levy brings in $1.2-1.3 million annually, which amounts to about 17 percent of STARS' $7.4 million budget.

The support from local taxpayers is absolutely essential to the system's operations, Payne said. He explained that local matching funds are required in order to receive the state and federal funds that make up the rest of the STARS budget.

"If the current levy were to disappear STARS service would almost come to a halt," Payne said. "It takes a dedicated local source of funding to receive state and federal operating funds that allows the service to continue."

The last chance for any November ballot issue language to be approved by City Council will be during its Aug. 4 meeting, Santos said.

Saginaw City Council was recently faced with a similar problem; on whether to bring the city's public safety millage to voters this year, or to wait and pay for the cost of a special election in 2015.

Some members of City Council argued that three months was not enough time to put together a millage campaign, and that public perception of Saginaw's police department will make the effort more challenging than in past years.